This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The headline on this blog is drawn from an excellent column written by Washington Post columnist, Paul Waldman.

The first paragraph of what he wrote puts it very well:

“There aren’t many issues that unite Democrat, Republican, and independent voters, offer a ready-made villain in greedy corporations, and tick off people from all different socio-economic groups.  Which is why the “right-to-repair” movement could gain real momentum, and why any politician looking to demonstrate real populist bona fides — rather than the phony kind — should jump on it.”

So, what is “right-to-repair?”

Right-to-repair refers to proposed government legislation to forbid manufacturers from imposing barriers that deny consumers the ability to repair and modify their own consumer products, such as electronic and automotive devices or farm vehicles, including tractors.

Waldman reports that Colorado Governor Jared Polis just signed the country’s first right-to-repair law aimed at agricultural equipment.  It prevents manufacturers such as John Deere from withholding manuals and other information that would enable independent repair professionals, or farmers themselves, to fix tractors, combines and other equipment.

“This year,” Waldman continues, “bills have been introduced in 28 states to prevent companies from restricting repairs on cars, electronics, appliances and all kinds of other products.  If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t replace the battery in your iPhone, this issue is about you.  Sooner or later, it will be about almost everybody.”

Which is why Waldman says right-to-repair could become a major political issue that has the potential to appeal to both parties together. 

More from Waldman:

“We now live in what University of Michigan law professor Aaron Perzanowski calls ‘the tethered economy.’  More and more, the things we buy come with strings attached to the manufacturer, effectively requiring more payments.

“While we put stuff we buy on our counters, carry them in our pockets or park them in our driveways, the manufacturers find ways to keep extracting our money.  What makes this possible is that software is built into every piece of technology — not just obvious things such as computers and cellphones, but also appliances, cars and much more.

“That software opens up a whole new range of opportunities to control the product for the benefit of the manufacturer.”

Farmers are among the groups that have found this to be so.

In many cases, they can’t repair their tractors because the software won’t let them without the company’s permission.  This “software lock” has been particularly frustrating to those who farm because they often pride themselves on self-reliance and problem-solving.  They often wait weeks or months for the dealer to repair a tractor when they could do it themselves or have a local mechanic fix it.

A political backlash is building.

In Massachusetts, Waldman reports that voters overwhelmingly passed a 2020 initiative giving consumers and repair shops access to data sent wirelessly from cars back to manufacturers.  Last week, the Minnesota Legislature took a big step toward passing large bills with right-to-repair language.

This fall, Maine voters will have an automotive right-to-repair question on their ballots.  And in March, a bi-partisan group of attorneys general wrote a letter urging Congress to pass national right-to-repair legislation.

The new Colorado law could be important for two reasons   First, it provides relief for farmers and independent repair shops.  Second, it’s going to demonstrate that, if you pass one of these laws, the sky does not fall, markets do not collapse, and manufacturers won’t pull out of Colorado.

Waldman concludes:

“Unlike most problems, the right-to-repair issue appeals to people of almost any ideology, from those who care deeply about individual property rights to those who want to rein in corporate abuse.  The argument is easy to understand:  Manufacturers shouldn’t be able to tell you what you can and can’t do with your own stuff.

All of this reminds me of a time in the past in the lobbying and public relations company which I helped to start.  We represented a right-to-repair client that wanted to give local shops the right to repair cars instead of having vehicles go only to dealers based on limited access to software.

Back then, we fought hard against car dealers and, unfortunately, lost.

Today, given how far right-to-repair logic has come, it might not be the same this time around.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Those who know me know that I was a fan of what retired late night TV host David Letterman often did, which was to propose a Top 10 List.  It summarized the status of various issues in simple, yet memorable, words, usually with a humorous twist.

So, below, I produce my own Top 10 List of Lobby Suggestions. 

Not sure how memorable they are, nor humorous, but they got me through about 40 years of dealing with public policy in Oregon, including 25 as a registered state lobbyist, built upon 15 years as a state government manager with responsibility to manage legislative relations for various state agencies.

I used these suggestions repeatedly over the years and, while not magic answers, they stood the test of time. 

• Identify legislative champions on an issue-by-issue basis.

To promote Port of Portland Columbia River channel deepening, for instance, I only had to cultivate three champions in the House and one in the Senate.  Each was a key member of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee, the Joint Ways and Means Committee.  So, they were well-positioned to lead channel deepening approval – and it occurred in a welcome development for the regional economy.

Of course, I also had Governor John Kitzhaber as a supporter. 

In another example, former Senator Betsy Johnson became a champion for me and for Providence Health System during the hugely controversial proposals to tax hospitals and health insurers.  She was the only official who supported the “deal” we struck officially before the taxes were imposed; all other public officials who signed off did not honor it – which underlines how difficult it is to cut a deal that lasts with the Legislature.

• Tell stories to prod understanding.

For the Port of Portland, I was able to lead an effort to gather evidence to justify calling the Port of Portland the “Port of Oregon,” thus illustrating the statewide benefits of the Port’s out-bound and in-bound maritime services.  The tactic proved to be critical in justifying money to deepen the Columbia River channel.

For Providence, doctors and nurses helped me deliver real-world messages about medical services, even as they advocated for more funding for the state-federal Medicaid program for low-income citizens.

For Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), with help from Oregon’s best journalism outfit, OPB, I was able to explain what it meant to “go dark” in rural Oregon, which at the time, was a major threat.

• Know your audience, including how and why legislators won election.  Plus, visit legislators on their home turf, not just at the Capitol in Salem.

• Identify legislators who know the smart middle and can lead everyone to it when “yes” or “no” are not possible.  Recognize that the zeal for the perfect is often the enemy of the possible. 

Former Senator Neil Bryant is my best example.  At my request, he led the successful effort to create a special “immunities section” in Oregon’s assisted suicide law, which had passed twice at the polls without such a section – and the change was important to Providence which wanted to make sure it didn’t have to participate in a questionable practice, though the deal required “referral” out to providers of the now-legal assisted suicide law.

• Recognize the importance of this ethic — “your word is your bond.”  Don’t cash it in.  If you do, you lose what you cannot afford to lose – your credibility.

If I had to change a position I had enunciated on behalf of a client, when I conveyed the change to those to whom I had spoken earlier, the corrective action increased my credibility.

Truth and honesty mattered, sometimes more even than the policy rationale for a piece of legislation.

• Recognize that solid lobbying rests on the discipline of conveying a series of positive impressions one at a time, not assuming you will succeed with one message.

In one example, I employed multiple contacts, including with then Senator Kate Brown, to advocate that a proposal to expand Oregon’s certificate-of-need law, promoted for some reason by public employee unions, did not become law because it would have increased health care costs, including for union employees.

• Build coalitions because working with others is usually better than working alone. 

There was a strange one for Hewlett-Packard.  I joined environmental lobbyists to support a ban on field burning.  For H-P, the issue was that smoke from field burns, as it engulfed power lines, often resulted in power outages, bad for the chip maker in Corvallis.  To emphasize, I joined environmentalists on this issue alone, not on the full extent of their lobbying agenda.

• Understand the intricacies of the legislative process and capitalize on its aspects. 

Arrive early at the Capitol every day.  Stay late every day.  Recognize the very personal nature of lobbying in Oregon in contrast, say, to D.C.   You will end up talking to all 90 legislators, plus the governor.  Recognize the need, as well, to talk with state agency officials.

• Make sure those clients you represent don’t turn your stomach.

There are three cases in my history where I failed and, remembering those cases, I still throw up – (1) advocating for establishing a bail bond program in Oregon; (2) advocating for health insurance interests in Washington, D.C. who wanted CFM to oppose a threat from anti-insurance interests, but there was not specific threat at the time in Oregon, so it became impossible to energize health insurance supporters; (3) being asked to promote a major car race track in Boardman on behalf of a client that wanted CFM “to open its rolodex” to promote the proposal; when that kind of stupid request came, we did not accept the client. 

Further, back when I was at CFM, we had a generally understood agreement that, (a) staff would not have to work with a client with whom they disagreed strongly; and (b) if opposition was wide enough among staff, we would not accept a client.  Plus, partners had their own “no” clients, with which staff agreed, including tobacco companies.

• Adhere to two standards.

Those that are part of the Capitol Club Code of Conduct are critically important, as are statutory ethical standards managed by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.  [And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am a current member of the nine-member Commission.]

So, there you have it, my lobby suggestions.  They served me well in my professional life and, if you think about, some of them apply to general life, as well.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The underdog Miami Heat pulled off the upset of the NBA basketball season last week, bouncing the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks from the playoffs in a stunning five-game romp.

Playoff tornado Jimmy Butler will now pivot to rowdy Madison Square Garden to face off with another unexpected surprise, the Cleveland-thumping New York Knicks. 

But the basketball result was not what lasted.

What did were the comments Antetokounmpo made after the game.  If I could pronounce his name, I’d be brilliant.  But, even more so if I had been able to say what he said after a sports loss.

Hours afterward, it felt like the entire  planet – or at least the online portion of the planet – was still obsessing about how Antetokounmpo addressed the topic of failure.

Here is a summary of what he said:

“Do you get a promotion every year, in your job?” Antetokounmpo answered, after a long pause in which he placed his head in his hands. “No, right?  So every year you work is a failure?  Yes or no.  No?

“Every year you work, you work towards something, towards a goal, which is to get a promotion, to be able to take care of your family, provide a house for them, or take care of your parents.  You work towards a goal – it’s not a failure.  It’s steps to success.”

“There’s always steps to it.  Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships.  Were the other nine years a failure?  That’s what you’re telling me…why do you ask me that question?  It’s the wrong question.

“There’s no failure in sports.  There’s good days, bad days.  Some days you are able to be successful, some days you’re not.  Some days it’s your turn, some days it’s not your turn.  And that’s what sports is about.  You don’t always win.  Some other people are going to win.

“And this year, somebody else is going to win. We’re going to come back next year and try to be better.”

In this answer, some sportswriters applauded him for not taking the easy way out. The easy way to feed the beast would be to say, Yes, absolutely the 2022-23 season was a failure.

That’s what our best professional athletes and teams are conditioned and expected to do – accept the terms of a false binary and declare anything short of a season-ending trophy hoist to be an unmitigated disaster.

Another writer:

“Life doesn’t work this way, of course, and Antetokounmpo is wise to point that out.  Failures can be abrupt and sudden, but successes are incremental, their gestation and development often hidden from sight.  As a zillion self-help books have lectured us, success is often born from our lowest moments, so the idea that an experience can be brightly labeled and tossed away is absurd.” So, onward and upward, Antetokounmpo!  Great answer – for sports and for life

‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ communicates the profound personal meaning of atonement

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

When I came across a story in the Wall Street Journal under the headline above, it struck a chord – pardon the play on words – with me.

“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” is one of my favorite hymns and always has been since I was a young child and heard the words sung in the church I attended in Portland, Oregon with my parents and siblings.

The writer for the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Ritchie, made the lyrics come alive.

Here is how he started his column:

“Before Captain Ahab sets sail in quest of the white whale, a ‘small choice copy of Watts hymn [is placed] in each seaman’s berth’ by the sister of one of the Pequod’s owners.  In 1851, nearly every reader of ‘Moby-Dick’ would have known the name of Isaac Watts (1674-1748), and the hymns that had made him famous.

“At Easter, many Christian congregations sang one of his most popular works, ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.’  It appears in nearly 2,000 hymnals that span theological, ethnic and social lines.

“Above all, Watts was a pastor who aspired to be a poet.  He could not abide the lame translations of the Psalms that were generally the sole texts allowed in congregational singing.  But his ’Hymns and Spiritual Songs’ (1707), in which ‘When I Survey’ appeared, didn’t just offer better translations.  It challenged the prevailing bias by offering altogether new works — hymns rather than psalms.

“In doing so, Watts helped lay the groundwork for revivals in America and England under latter-day Puritans like Jonathan Edwards and the founders of Methodism, John and Charles Wesley.  Charles Wesley’s hymns, along with those of John Newton (“Amazing Grace”) and others, contributed powerfully to revival movements too.  But few have weathered the years as well as ‘When I Survey.’”

Ritchie also comments on the poetic nature of the words which carry the potential to draw us to Christ.

“The language of ‘When I Survey,’ he says, “is easily understood, yet fully capable of communicating the profound personal meaning of Christ’s atonement.  It obeys strict rhythms as the hymn genre demands, but its pauses and stresses guide one’s emotions throughout.  Its structure moves dramatically, from ‘surveying’ the crucifixion scene to incorporating its cosmic meaning into one’s life.

“Watts gives Galatians 6:14 as his biblical text:  ‘Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’  The opening stanza announces this theme, earnestly but quietly:

When I survey the wondrous cross,

On which the prince of glory dy’d,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

“The hymn then moves from reflection on the event to dialogue with God — a prayer:

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast

Save in the death of Christ my God;

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to his blood.

“This is a bold declaration.  But where is the emotional strength that will empower the singer to perform this ‘sacrifice’?  For that, Watts moves away from the first-person perspective.  The third stanza begins with an imperative verb addressed to one’s fellow singers, ending with two questions:

See from his head, his hands, his feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down;

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet?

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

“In this stanza, his use of chiasmus — the repetition and reversal of ‘sorrow and love’ — draws us emotionally into the scene.  Surprisingly, the blood of Christ, so central to his sacrifice, is not even mentioned.  But its presence is palpable.  Every reflective singer will recognize that the Savior’s blood has been transformed into his sorrow for our sins and his forgiving love for us.  The poetry fuses them all at the cross.

“In the fourth stanza, Watts returns to his chiastic technique.  But now he moves forward, taking the singers with him to identify with Christ’s death and ponder its significance for their place on earth.

His dying crimson like a robe

Spreads o’er his body on the tree,

Then am I dead to all the globe,

And all the globe is dead to me.

“The structure of the entire hymn has worked theologically and emotionally to guide the singers to this overwhelming moment.  Now, in the final stanza, they are ready to present their entire being to Christ:

Were the whole realm of nature mine

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Many churches have swept aside old hymns to make room for newer devotional music – and, while it is possible to bemoan the loss of some great hymns like ‘When I Survey, I also like the new songs, especially when, as in Southwest Church in La Quinta, California, where my wife and I attend, they are done in a pulsating, upbeat style that allows you to exclaim about the goodness of God.

Ritchie concludes:

“…some churches will pause to survey Watts’ wondrous cross, whether to the familiar 1824 tune by Lowell Mason or in the popular 2000 setting by Chris Tomlin.  The personal significance of the hymn’s atonement is central to every branch, twig, and leaf of the Christian tree.  And the power of ‘When I Survey’ to take us to Calvary’s tree guarantees that this small, choice selection from Watts will echo for generations to come.”

And, for me, the echo continues unabated.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I wrote about this yesterday, but couldn’t help myself from doing so again.

So, here are excerpts from some media coverage, plus my ending thought.

FROM JORDAN KLEPPER, GUEST HOST OF THE DAILY SHOW:  “Look, I’m happy for Dominion, but Dominion was not the only injured party here.  What about, you know, our faith in democracy?

“There are people who will not trust elections for the rest of their lives, and I have to talk to those people!  I’m going to be arguing with them at Trump rallies every four years for the rest of my life.  

“And you know what? I’m not naïve.  I didn’t expect this lawsuit to restore this country’s faith in elections or even for me to get a little cashola, no.  But I was at least hoping to get a couple of weeks of joy out of seeing Sean Hannity up there on the stand, sweating through his shirt like a beached manatee.

“Would that have saved democracy? I don’t know.  But it would have been nice to see.”

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:  “It was a far cry from the apology Dominion sought.  But a Dominion spokeswoman said that the sheer size of the settlement was enough.

“An apology is about accountability, and today Dominion held Fox accountable.  Fox paid a historic settlement and issued a statement acknowledging that the statements about Dominion were false.

“There was relief, too, inside Fox, as it was spared more of what one employee called ‘a traumatic’ episode that had preoccupied Fox’s rank and file.

“Fox executives had also been convinced that Dominion’s lawyers would work to embarrass their stars — and especially Murdoch — on the witness stand, and they were pleased the solution meant those people would be kept out of court, a person familiar with the matter said.

“The settlement will not be the end of the 2020 story for either company: Fox faces the other defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, which has asked for $2.7 billion.  And Dominion is pursuing lawsuits against individuals and groups that pushed falsehoods about its products after the election, including One America News and Trump allies Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell.

“Democrat Kathy Boockvar, who assecretary of the commonwealthin Pennsylvania helped certify President Biden’s victory there in 2020 and has faced threats ever since, said the settlement would be particularly persuasive to large corporations, including Fox itself.

“’Deterrence matters,’ Boockvar said.  ‘This sends a clear message to other networks and particularly to Fox as we enter the 2024 campaign season: They better think twice about purveying lies.

“’Accountability takes many forms, but dollars speak loudly to large corporations.’”

AND THIS COMMENT FROM ME:  Like others, I would have, (a) enjoyed watching Hannity, Carlson, Bartiromo, Murdoch and others suffer under the glare of a suit and cross-examination as both made clear the lack of journalistic ethics of quality, and (b) a requirement for Fox to publish an on-air apology.

[Interesting, though not surprising, also to note that Fox didn’t cover the settlement on its airwaves.]

But, I will let this lie with the reality that the huge dollar settlement “will speak loudly to large corporations, including Fox.”

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have just enough information to be dangerous, but the Fox-Dominion settlement – just announced yesterday — is disappointing for me.

In this main respect:  Fox should have been required to apologize on air for its intentional effort to publicize falsehoods about the 2020 election.

Instead, based on reporting this morning, we’ll just have to settle for Fox being required to pay nearly $800 million.  While it’s reported to the largest such settlement in such cases, it’s still not enough given the egregious actions –intentional, no less – by Fox.

Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote about the settlement in the Post today under this headline:  “The big hole in the Dominion-Fox News settlement.”

Here is how he started his column:

“When news of a possible settlement between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News surfaced on Sunday night, pleas from concerned citizens popped up on social media:  Don’t settle this lawsuit, Dominion.  Put all the evidence before a jury.  Drag Fox News hosts and executives to the witness stand.  Grill them on their deceptive programming.

“So, the news Tuesday afternoon that the two parties had settled Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation suit over election disinformation for $787.5 million will disappoint those who longed for a more visceral comeuppance for Fox News.  That’s understandable, considering that Fox News has littered the public square with lies and half-baked stories — essentially mini-Dominions — for 26-plus years.”

Still, Wemple wrote, “the size of the payout, however, speaks to both the journalistic atrocities and the reams of internal correspondence that Dominion pried from Fox News during the pretrial maneuvering.  And yet: It all feels a bit empty.”

Wemple opined that he would have enjoyed the likes of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, and Rupert Murdoch having to go under the bright lights of the court, including cross examination by Dominion attorneys.

Further, Wemple wrote, “Fox News demonstrated that not even a court record bulging with evidence of perfidy is enough to shame the organization into genuine contrition.”

Fox attorneys said this:  “We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems.  We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.  This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.’”

“A commitment to the highest news standards?” 

Laughable.  Fox has none.

And, again, regarding an apology?  No, there will not be one, which Wemple says is “where the emptiness comes in.”

Besides the cost of the settlement for Fox, there is another piece of good news for those of us who value solid journalism and, thus, detest Fox.  It is that Fox faces several more suits charging it with journalistic atrocities that value ratings over facts.

One hopes those, too, will land with a financial thud on Fox’s doorstep.

OREGON BLUE BOOK:  WHAT IS IT?   This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.   My friend and former business partner, Kerry Tymchuk, answered the question in this blog headline as he wrote in his monthly director’s column for the Oregon Historical Society.   Here is how Tymchuk started his on-line column:   “I confess that every two years, I am one of those Oregonians — and there are many more like me out there — who can’t wait for the day when the new Oregon Blue Book is available for purchase.   “Published every two years since 1911 by the Oregon State Archives, a division of the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office, the Oregon Blue Book is our state’s official almanac and fact book.    “From a list of Oregonians who have the won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize, to addresses and phone numbers of every agency of state government, to facts about all of Oregon’s 36 counties and 241 incorporated cities, to background on Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribal Nations, to the text of the Oregon Constitution, and to so much more, this year’s 400+ page book, like those that came before it, is chock full of information about Oregon’s history, government, economy, and culture.”   Tymchuk reported that the Oregon Blue Book is so highly regarded that state law actually requires it to be published.   “ORS 177.120,” he said, “reads, in part, The Secretary of State shall compile and issue on or about February 15 of each odd-numbered year an official directory of all state officers, state institutions, boards and commissions, and district and county officers of the state, to be known as the Oregon Blue Book, and include therein the information regarding their functions that the secretary considers most valuable to the people of the state, together with such other data and information as usually is included in similar publications.’”  Several years ago, one of Tymchuk’s friends gave him a collection of Oregon Blue Books, which date back to the original publication in 1911.  No surprise, he treasures those past editions and has given them to the Society he leads. The reason Tymchuk supports the Blue Book so strongly revolves around this phrase:  If history repeats itself, we should learn from that history.   Finally, I report that I am purchasing the new Blue Book, so it will join others on my home bookshelf.   And, I add that Tynchuk is a good friend of mine.  He holds the “Boyle Family Director” position at the Oregon Historical Society.  The name derives from the Boyle Family in Oregon which has done much for the Historical Society, including funding Tymchuk’s position as director.   So, Kerry, if you learn more in the new Blue Book, give me a heads up.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

If you follow the news these days, the letters “A” and “I” will make sense to you.

They stand for “artificial intelligence” and, as I write this, far be it from me, who relies on my grandson for tech advice, to come across as some kind of expert.

For me, the answer to the question in the headline is “yes” and “no.”  Good and bad?  Yes.

But, that said, I have run two competing perspectives on A-I.

• One is that, insofar as I understand A-I, it could have a number of threatening uses as it could even be used in criminal activities or international relations.
• A second is that, if organized properly, it could have many positive uses, 35 of which were outlined in a major New York Times article over the weekend.

I have come across A-I in two real-world cases recently.

In one case, a friend of mine told me he used A-I to come up with a written summary of his efforts to become a better golfer.  He gave ChatGPT a few facts and, within seconds, it came up with a blog-like story of his golf ventures – and he said it was very accurate.

In another case, my wife used ChatGPT to provide a few facts about a “dancing poodle” (our family dog is a poodle) and it came up with a story and photos of a dancing poodle, which, it must be said, looked a lot like our poodle, but, I suppose, poodles all look similar.

Regarding the New York Times article, it is worth reading it in its entirely because it contains a thoughtful list of solid uses.

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is weighing possible rules for A-I tools like ChatGPT.  It is doing so, at least in part, as fears grow over the potential use of artificial intelligence to commit crimes and spread falsehoods.

In a first step toward potential regulation, the Commerce Department published a formal public request for comment on what it called “accountability measures,”including whether potentially risky new A-I models should go through a certification process before they are released.  

The Administration’s action comes amid a boom in the use of artificial-intelligence tools that can quickly generate humanlike writing, images, videos and more, such as the ones I described above.

ChatGPT, the chatbot from Microsoft Corporation start-up, OpenA-I, has been estimated by some analysts to have reached 100 million users faster than any consumer app in history. 

“It is amazing to see what these tools can do even in their relative infancy,” said Alan Davidson, who leads the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Commerce Departmentagencythat put out the request for comment. “We know that we need to put some guardrails in place to make sure that they are being used responsibly.” 

So, at base, governing A-I sounds a little to me like early efforts to govern the Internet, when it was in its infancy.

But, whatever your view – pro or con government regulation – the issue with A-I will come down to what the issue is with the Internet:  Developing positive uses, versus negative ones, will be up to individual initiative.

Which, I suppose, is a scary thought, unless, I add, you read the NY Times list and gain some security from positive uses of A-I these days.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Over the years, as a retired state lobbyist, I have been known to say something like this:  You never know what stupid ideas will emerge at the State Capitol in Salem when 90 citizens gather in one place for a legislative session.

Another bad idea emerged over the weekend.  The Oregonian reported the idea under this headline:  Oregon lawmakers suggest replacing golf courses Pumpkin Ridge and The Reserve with semiconductor factories.

The newspaper added:

“It’s a symbolic proposal — neither golf course appears to be a candidate for redevelopment.”

Still?  Why?

Apparently, what happened was that 20 lawmakers, unhappy with new legislation that gave Governor Tina Kotek temporary authority to designate farmland for industrial development, suggested that she look to high-profile golf courses instead.

Their suggestion probably isn’t realistic – the golf courses are in private hands and the owners have given no indication they would consider selling, regardless of whether or not the land is available to industry.

And both courses, Pumpkin Ridge near North Plains and the Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club in Aloha, are outside the dense cluster of semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers in Hillsboro.

If there was a reason for the proposal, it might have revolved around farmland, where supporters view various risks.

“Farmland has inadequate protections in the bill,” they wrote. “Large, open fields in the Willamette Valley are not purposeless.  These fields are feeding our families, Oregonians, and the world.  A member-only golf course does not.”

Kotek signed Senate Bill 4 on Thursday after it passed the House and Senate by wide, bi-partisan margins. The legislation provides $190 million in grants and loans for chipmakers and their suppliers, $10 million for academic research, and $10 million for industrial site development.

More controversially, the bill gives Kotek the authority to designate hundreds of acres of rural land for industrial development through the end of 2024.

The nationally known Pumpkin Ridge course is 350 acres, according to the lawmakers, and The Reserve is 319 acres.  Each would be big enough for a modest-sized chip factory or a large industry supplier, but there’s no evidence that any developer has ever considered building on them.

Pumpkin Ridge is outside the North Plains urban growth boundary.  It’s among the most prestigious golf courses on the West Coast and doesn’t appear to be a candidate for redevelopment.  Neither does the 36-hole Reserve.

But, again, what this illustrates is that there is no end of silly ideas emerging from the Capitol in Salem.

Do I label this idea from standpoint of my bias?  Yes.  Absolutely.

I support golf and golf courses as a solid way for the public to engage in a game in the great outdoors.  Golf proved to be a salvation of sorts for many people during the pandemic.

So, I say, save golf courses today for the masses, even as land is found for semiconductors (if any more can be attracted to Oregon) and land is preserved for farming.  There is enough land to go around.

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

If you want to know what’s going on in the Oregon Legislature, just go to Oregon Public Broadcasting’s (OPB) website.

There, you will find all the information from one of Oregon’s best journalism sites.

OPB was a former client of mine and it still is represented by my old firm, now called CFM Advocates. 

So, am I biased?  Yes.  And with good reason.

Such was the case yesterday as I read a story by two OPB reporters, Lauren Dake and Dirk VanderHart.  It was a great story on the status of the Oregon Legislature, which is meeting at the Capitol for its “long session,” one scheduled every other yearsl

Under this subhead, here are excerpts of what the two reporters wrote, Housing and semiconductors have largely united lawmakers so far this year. More fraught discussions are coming:

• Urged by Governor Tina Kotek, the Democrat-controlled Legislature wasted no time building a $200 million package aimed at easing the state’s dire housing crisis, especially for the homeless, a major plank in the new governor’s term as she took office last January.
• Spurred by federal deadlines, lawmakers also rushed to roll out the red carpet for new semi-conductor facilities.
• Taken together, the housing and semi-conductor bills may wind up becoming the shorthand by which the 2023 session is known years from now.  Halfway through the five-month session, they are, by far, the most consequential items to find their way to Kotek’s desk.

While lawmakers have so far avoided major fights, several issues remain on the table which could prompt political tension — gun regulations, abortion, transgender health care, and rent control.

Further, the elephant in the room, as is true in every legislative session, is the need to balance the two-year State of Oregon budget.  Note the word “balance.”

In contrast to the federal government, Oregon’s budget every cycle must contain equal amounts of revenue and expenses.  Lawmakers have yet to grapple seriously with this reality that could be far starker than the state has seen in years.  The final budget numbers won’t be known until May, when economists deliver a revenue forecast that will be used to build the final two-year spending plan.

Here are a few other nuggets from OPB’s story:

• Every week, Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, and Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, meet to discuss the week’s agenda. The regular conversations have done little to ease the tension between the two legislators in the upper chamber.
• In the session’s first 11 weeks, minority Republicans have refused to waive the constitutional requirement that bills be read in their entirety before a final vote on the Senate floor.  The move is one of the only options GOP lawmakers still have to leverage power given their minority status in both chambers, but so far it’s made seemingly little impact on what proposals live or die.  Democrats have said they will simply hold marathon floor sessions to pass their priorities – meetings dominated by a computer voice droning out bills line-by-line while senators mill around.
• On the top of Knopp’s list of legislation he’d like to kill:  A Democrat proposal to go farther on rent control. In 2019, Oregon became the first in the nation with statewide rent control.  The current law prohibits raising rent by more than 7 per cent per year, plus inflation.  With the recent spike in inflation, Democrats are pushing to further lower the cap.
• Perhaps the most emotionally-charged bill so far this session is a sweeping measure to guarantee access to abortion and gender-affirming care, the latter of which raises the political tender issue of transgender care.
• Over on the House side of the state Capitol, the relationships between legislative leaders feel easier.  “I think we have formed a friendship,” House Republican Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson said of her political dynamic with House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis.
• Along with abortion access, gun regulations are a perennial point of friction in Salem — and this year is no exception.  Democrats are moving along several fronts to expand the state’s requirements for gun ownership, and they often cite ongoing mass shootings occurring with regularity around the country as evidence tighter controls are needed.

So, legislators are a little more than halfway toward adjournment, which, by law, must occur in late June or early July.  The requirement to end the session is useful because it means disagreements just cannot go on and on.

When I was a state lobbyist, adjournment – it is called “adjournment sine die” – was day I looked forward to expectantly.  Actually, I pined for it.  Because it meant that my 14-16 hours days at the Capitol were done for another year.

That was good then.  And the end of the legislative session this year will allow those who care to get about the business of rating its performance.